Center for Health Impacts
Public Health Workforce Development
Building Public Health Workforce Capacity
To help meet the critical public health workforce need during the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed and launched Public Health Essentials, and online ‘just-in-time’ training to help build worker’s confidence in key public health performance area. This training is being used by government and allied public health workers across the U.S.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Public Health Essentials Builds Critical Skills
Public Health Essentials was released in 2021 to build public health workers’ confidence in performing critical public health skills. The training has been used by 100s of people working in government and allied public health roles, and contributes to a significant increase in their ability to apply strategic skills to their work.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Public Health Essentials’ National Reach
Cooperative Extension offices across the country support community development and resilience building, working across the lifespan. Extension workers are embedded within communities, linking education, research, and practice to improve the determinants of health, but may not identify as public health workers. Public Health Essentials is helping to change that paradigm.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Seeding Health Literacy to Grow Healthy Communities
In 2021, we partnered with three Cooperative Extension offices in rural New York State to explore how teams of community-embedded workers might help to influence programming to improve community health outcomes in their counties. Using Public Health Essentials as a cohort capacity building tool, interdisciplinary teams were built to advance health equity.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Building Public Health Capacity Within Extension Offices to Support Health & Resilience
Teams built from Cooperative Extension offices in three rural counties in New York State used Public Health Essentials to build their identity and confidence as community-embedded public health workers. With ongoing mentoring and minimal funding support, these teams have aligned their work with county health improvement priorities to advance access to and use of key public health resources.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Helping Mentors and Supervisors Excel
In New York State, Public Health Essentials is being used to build the capacity of people newly entering key public health roles. As an online training program, this relieves some supervisor training burden, however, learners excel when learning can be translated into action. To help mentors and supervisors support excellence, mentor training and report resources are provided.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Free Trainings
Racial Allyship
Racism is a public health crisis. Health equity will not be achieved until we acknowledge and address this crisis. One critical step you can take is to become an ally. This course is specifically designed to build your skills related to anti-Black racism, giving you tools to help address the structural racism that has persisted in the U.S. since the Civil War.
Contact: Lara Parrilla
Public Health Leader
We invite all New Yorkers to become public health leaders in their community. This training is designed to help you understand the state of health in NY and the factors that influence health; build skills to connect and communicate with peers, allies, and key social resource; and take an active role in helping your community prevent future public health emergencies.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Food Safety, Outbreak Investigation, Environmental Health
As a part of the New York Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence, we offer many free resources and trainings to public health departments and their staff: Interviewing skills, outbreak investigation and response, whole genome sequencing, environmental health, and more!
Contact: Laura Goodman
Nature Rx
Time in Nature Reduces Stress, Increases Happiness
Time in nature is known to be a strong support for health and wellbeing, and is even prescribed as an intervention to support mental health. But how much time is needed to support a positive effect? We compiled research to show that as little as 10 minutes in a natural setting can help college students feel happier, more resilient, and decrease the effects of stress, anxiety, depression and other mental health issues college students face.
Contact: Gen Meredith
Healthy Kids, Healthy Planet
Spending time in nature brings many benefits, including academic success, social development, and mental well-being. Increasing the time students spend in nature during the school day can be a simple and straightforward way to support many different goals educators have for their students. However, making it happen can be challenging. This toolkit helps teachers identify and activate solutions.
Contact: Amie Patchen
Healthy Kids, Healthy Planet – Building Outdoor Spaces
Community partners pooled resources and expertise to help schools and teachers increase teachers’ and students’ ability to spend time outdoors during the school day.
Contact: Amie Patchen